Different Sensei
by Kakashihasnicearms
Summary: Maybe Team 7 won't split up after all...(What could possibly go wrong?)
1. Temporary

Sakura squeezed her knees together, desperate to not let any of her clothing touch Naruto's orange pants or white shirt with a red whirlpool decorating the back. She winced as her knees ached and stole a glance at Sasuke. Sasuke had laced his fingers together, as if already anticipating what Sakura was thinking. Naruto was trying to curb his boredom with counting the fine strands on the end of his calligraphy brush. He lost count after a few hundred and ended up starting over.

"Kaa-chan said that our sensei is going to be someone really cool," Naruto blurted out. He nervously glanced at his teammates and sighed, looking at his hands. Scarred and dotted with ink that he hadn't washed off since that morning while working on his calligraphy. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura looked entirely thrilled, or interested, in the slightest.

Normally, Sasuke thought, shinobi in Konoha used leaves to disguise their shunshin. He hadn't any time to finish that thought, though, since a chill of a cold, harbinger of blood wind made terrible memories resurface. He whirled around to see a thin, lanky figure with eyes that he saw his own reflection in.

In a clap of thunder, a woman in a Jounin vest and a navy blue shirt that was two sizes too big appeared.

"You three must be Team 7," she decided.

Sakura felt the urge to make a good impression, having not seen a real kunoichi before. She'd seen them from afar, maybe passed them by in the market, or maybe even saw one walking down the halls of the Academy, but she could tell this woman, too thin to still be breathing, was _real_.

"I-I'm Haruno Sakura! It's an honor!" Sakura dropped to the ground from her seat on the steps of the narrow stairwell and knelt and bowed deeply. Her heart pumped blood and screamed in her ears and her frail frame shook as the Jounin remained silent.

"Honor?" the Jounin repeated quietly. She shook her head, "No, really, Sakura-san. It is truly an honor to meet such a pitiful and worthless girl as you. I thought all the worthless girls all died before they could have kids, but I was wrong. I'm even more honored to meet such a rare bird as you, a girl who'd deceived her teachers with Daddy's money to write such high marks on your Academy reports."

"W-what…?" Sakura's head shot up and tears shone in her eyes. Then anger replaced it, "I-I didn't…! You have no right—"

The Jounin moved so quickly that the air around her heated up. Her black eyes, glassy, stared into Sakura's green ones unwaveringly. She seemed to be smiling in her black eyes, laughing as if Sakura's existence was a huge joke. "No, Sakura-san, you have no right to speak to your temporary instructor like that. Do you know what they call this?"

"I—"

"Defiance," she cut in, cutting into Sakura's weak defense. She tilted her head, "And do you know why, in a very militaristic village as this, this has such a terrible image that appears in mind?"

"Leave her—" Naruto leapt forward towards the Jounin.

"Ah, that brings me to my next subject: Uzumaki Naruto," she said. Something snapped and rang within Sasuke's and Sakura's ears. It was a gong inside Naruto and he was on the ground coughing and wheezing and holding his side, ever so slightly deformed, in pain. A few drips of blood raced around his lips and mixed with spit and quickly fizzled out dry on the ground in the sun.

"Born to a mother during an unfortunate time: when the Kyuubi attacked. Your father died in the attack and left your mother alone to raise you. She tried her best, I'm sure, but if there's one thing that Uzumaki Kushina has utterly failed in, it is making sure that you didn't redefine the meaning of idiot," she said smoothly. "Congratulations."

On the ground, Naruto glared hatefully at her, "You…don't know…"

"Right," she sighed sadly, "I'm not your mother, I'm not you, I _don't_ know."

Sasuke sat still, frozen, in his position. His eyes darted from Sakura to Naruto and then to his sensei. She looked at him and slipped a hand in her pocket. Sasuke's lips pulled back and revealed white as he let a kunai fly. Something made a sound similar to someone dragging their nails across a chalkboard and Sasuke cried out, hitting his head on the stair step at an odd angle and then black spots danced in his vision, "T-takami…"

The Jounin narrowed her eyes dangerously, "Uchiha Sasuke, the last Uchiha. Truly, a prodigy. You're an outlier in your generation with Konoha's most prized kekkei genkai and skills that could put most Genin to shame. Your intellect is almost that of a Nara's, your taijutsu is greater than that of many Hyuuga Genin, your ninjutsu repertoire is greater than that of any of your peers, and your genjutsu should truly be something to behold," she said slowly. "Or so I had hoped."

"You see, Sasuke-san, your true weakness, the weakness that you must get rid of to somehow make your life better, is your existence. You live in a rather disgusting way, living only to kill one person, as if that is all a shinobi's life is. Your eyes are closed and arrogance keeps you from ever being able to become a real shinobi. When I was your age, people like you either had the skills to keep themselves, their teammates, and their mission alive and successful, or died. I can't tell you how sad I was when more than half of the people I thought had so much potential just," she spread her hands out helplessly, "Were murdered. I saw it happen, once. On a mission, a girl with the same Uchiha blood running through your veins as you do thought that it would be easy. Her eyes lit up red, something that I still think is rather amazing, and then she raced towards the enemy. I won't tell you exactly what happened, but I can tell you that only I walked back to Konoha to tell them that our team of ten shinobi was dead. Oh well, is what I'd thought. I still do."

She gripped Sasuke's collar roughly, shaking him until he opened his eyes, "I still think that because there is nothing I can do to bring her back, and really, do I want to? She was useless them as a shinobi, and useless now as a shinobi, and useless in the future as shinobi."

"You're just a…" Sasuke coughed.

She let Sasuke go, throwing him to the ground and sat on the edge of the stairwell. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a twenty-foot plummet to her death if she jumped off right then. Tempting, very tempting. She looked at the three of them, moaning in pain or crying, and huddling unconsciously together. "You're probably blaming some crazy, silver-haired bitch for pointing out how weak you are and how useless you are and wondering why she came all the way here and wasted the good part of her day being purposefully even later than Konoha's famous Copy Ninja and then beat the shit out of you. Well, I'll clear up one mystery for you three: my name is Takami. Since I'm your temporary sensei, I don't think telling you my full name is all that necessary."

Takami clasped her hands together, "Right, then! Tomorrow I'd like to see the three of you on Training Ground 1 at eight AM. We've got a lot to work on, or a little, depending on how you look at it."

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kakashi slammed Takami against the wall next to his apartment door. Moonlight lit up her face from the window at end of the hallway. Kakashi half expected his sister to look away and mumble an apology, because that's what she would've done, but she stared straight into his eyes, unwavering, unafraid. She said nothing to the man about four inches taller than she and didn't resist against his grasp.

"No, Kakashi," Takami said lowly, "What the hell is wrong with _you_? Did you really believe those reports about Sakura, and that the price of being a prodigy from Konoha's most renowned clan was free? Did you really believe that Kushina has the time to make ends meet and rein in Naruto? I know you had your little heart set on being their sensei, to mold a team into something great, and that you're frustrated you're stuck with Genin already fitting nicely into shinobi molds, but," Takami's eyes shone with frustration, an emotion only Kakashi was allowed to see, "This wasn't my call."  
Kakashi growled with unsettled frustration and let her go, shoving her off to the side. She tripped but caught herself and gave Kakashi a hard look, "Good night."

Takami slipped into bed after crushing something to smithereens in her mouth and slept with absolutely no regrets. The three Genin, the ones she wanted to fail so badly to free herself from any obligation to Konoha and rip out just one heart and then her own, had potential. That she was sure about. She turned over and looked at the photographs that lay face down on her floor. They weren't like Kakashi's team at all; Hinata was already skilled and smart, Shikamaru even more so, and Lee was simply a side project to keep Kakashi busy since Hinata and Shikamaru needed little to no guidance. Maybe he could teach them genjutsu, but Team 7 was a clean slate. An annoyingly clean slate, with absolutely nothing to boast about besides Sasuke's limited katon jutsu repertoire. It would take time, a lot of time, to etch anything into it. Takami cursed under her blankets. The Hokage knew she was a ticking time bomb, trying to leave Konoha, and saddled her with a task that would tie her down to Konoha only more firmly.

It was possibly the best plan Sarutobi had ever conjured up.

* * *

"Yesterday, she said she was our temporary sensei," Sakura said. "What do you think that means?"

"Maybe we're going to get another sensei. One that isn't as bat shit crazy as she is," Naruto muttered.

Sasuke's hand flicked back, impaling a kunai into a tree. His eyes widened in horror when he felt something warm drip down his arm. He turned and saw the kunai facing the wrong way and cutting into his hand. He cried out and jumped back, away from Takami.

"Morning," Takami rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. "I guess the three of you got better sleep than I did. I was just itching to get this day over with."

"What do you mean, temporary?" Sakura blurted out. She slammed a hand over her mouth, as if what she'd just said was something forbidden.

"You'll see," Takami said. "Let's go," Takami turned to walk towards the denser part of the forest.

An hour passed in pure silence, making Takami's skin crawl. She glanced back at Sakura and saw the girl looking entirely dejected. She slowed her pace until she fell into step with the girl. Only, it caused Sakura to jump back in fear. Takami shrugged to herself. _It's not like she has no reason to do so._ Naruto eyed her warily and Sasuke stared at her with more perplexity than the first time he'd met her.

Team 7 stopped in front of a huge cavern. It was like a lion's mouth a hundred times bigger and a thousand times darker. It was toothless and rimmed grey, its red stripped away. A few glittering bones, a musty yellow and speckled with white, still had a few dabs of flesh stuck to them. Beside the bones littering the ground, hitai-ate, rusted, lay solemnly.

Takami turned around and then sat on a patch of green grass, eerily the only patch of anything living around besides the towering trees behind the ring of smaller, younger, shorter trees. "Let me give you a boring history lesson: this is one of Konoha's special training grounds. Only shinobi with Jounin status can come here, or you'll be stopped by the ANBU up there," Takami pointed to a shadow up in the tree. The three Genin looked up just as the ANBU vanished, "Several of Konoha's most powerful shinobi trained here. Sakura-san, this is what an honor is. No other team gets to come here and train, and you three worthless, incredibly unqualified and undeserving kids, get to come here. For you to come here and walk on the very soil that the Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime, and Yondaime trained upon is an honor."

"How come some of the trees look so sickly?" Naruto mumbled. He'd noticed it only because he was trying desperately to not listen to her and avoid her eyes and distract himself.

"Because my brother and I took every Chuunin we killed in the Exams and burned them all here. Their blood was poisoned with my former teammate's toxins. So, the trees suffer from the poison," Takami said, "Good eye, Uzumaki-san. But, tell me what I said earlier. Just so I know you understand what Sakura-san seems to misunderstand."

Naruto's mouth went dry. Something snapped in the air and Naruto's body hit the ground and made a small crater. Sakura jumped back with a yelp. _I…I didn't even see her move!_ Sasuke stared at the silver-haired woman silently.

Takami stood up suddenly, grabbed the three of them, and walked 300 paces forward. Naruto's head swiveled around, seeing nothing but darkness. He unconsciously tightened his grip on her sleeve and she laughed lowly, "How cute."

Takami shoved backpacks into their hands and her teeth almost gleamed menacingly in the darkness. Takami's eyes glowed silver, the only light, however faint, they saw. She pushed Sakura and the girl disappeared with a scream, plummeting down an invisible cavern ninety degrees below the surface. Naruto and Sasuke froze and then tried to run, only for Takami to push Naruto next. "Sasuke!" Naruto cried out, his voice growing fainter and fainter.

When all Sasuke could hear was his heart pounding in his ears, Takami picked up the Uchiha boy, his feet not touching the ground anymore and his eyes reflecting pure animalistic fear, and cast him down into the cavern without a second thought.

"Enjoy!" Takami let out a maniacal laugh as her arm arced forward, drowning out Sasuke's horrified screams.


	2. Caverns of Hell I

_Day 1_

* * *

Naruto made a fist on the ground, his nails leaving five lines as they curled into his palms. He gritted his teeth and looked up into the darkness. His stomach clenched in disappointment; he'd wanted to see sunlight. Something inside him told him that it was nearing nighttime, outside. He looked upwards and wanted to see the moon.

Faint sniffling reached his ears and he winced as light suddenly exploded. He raised hand to shield his eyes and narrowed his blue eyes at his bruised black-haired teammate brandishing a flashlight. A few moths flew around the flashlight, which Sasuke caught in his hand and crushed and wiped on his shorts. Sasuke looked over Naruto and then his flashlight flicked over to Sakura. Naruto's mouth dropped when he saw the pink-haired girl.

Her leg was bent at an unnatural angle; making vomiting a very possible outcome for his breakfast he'd eaten hours and hours ago. She had tears streaming down her face with blood coming from a gash on her head and her hands red and raw.

She couldn't move.

Naruto immediately grabbed his backpack and dug ravenously for anything to set her leg or gauze to stop the bleeding. He threw everything out at random, searching desperately, but came up empty-handed. Sasuke shook his head; he didn't have anything either.

Sakura pushed her backpack over weakly, yelping as her hand flexed and more blood dripped out. She turned away, embarrassed and ashamed at her weakness. Naruto took the zipper in one hand and tried to open it in a single, fluid motion. Only, the bag refused to open, no matter how much Naruto tugged and tugged.

"You'll break it if you force it," Sasuke chastised in a raspy voice, grabbing the bag from him and slowly coaxing it open. It didn't work for him either. The two boys exchanged wary looks, ready to blame the other.

"L-let me…" Sakura said, her voice hoarse. Naruto placed it next to her and she slowly but surely opened it. She let out a grim smile before allowing Naruto to dig in for a split or gauze. He glanced at the Uchiha, "Were you paying attention during that one class about medical produres?"

Sasuke didn't respond.

Naruto nodded to himself and took out a few alcohol swabs, "Sorry, Sakura. This'll hurt, a lot," he warned before wiping her bloody head clear of blood around the gash and quickly wrapping white gauze around her head and tied it off neatly. Sakura was shaking from pain and sobs and tears ran down her face like twin waterfalls. Naruto gave her a sympathetic look before taking her leg and putting two straight wooden planks around her misshapen leg.

Sakura was hysterical; her cries echoed down into the cavern that went on in two directions: behind them and in front of them. Sasuke leaned against the wall, looking a paper he found in his bag.

"It's a letter," Sasuke mumbled once Naruto was done.

"What's it say?" Naruto stood up to trot over and read. Sasuke snatched it further away from him and gave him a cautious look. "I'll read it."  
"Fine," Naruto crossed his arms hotly but allowed Sasuke to speak.

"'There are a few rules: 1. Don't die. 2. You have one week to come out of the exit. 3. Don't starve. As a side note, I can't guarantee it's completely lifeless down there. I might've left a few things living down there, so be prepared. Enjoy. –Takami'," Sasuke read. "Where the fuck is the exit?"

"Probably down there," Naruto pointed to the one ahead of them. Sasuke looked back behind them, "Maybe it's back there."

Naruto dug into his pack and found ration bars, tasteless, but edible. He chewed, as if wasting time chewing three times as slowly as he normally did was going to get him out of this mess. He bit off a piece and handed it to Sakura while Sasuke stood stony-faced.

"We've got to split up."

"No, we can't," Sakura said, her eyes going wide, "Iruka-sensei said that teamwork is of the utmost importance and a lack of it means mission failure and death!"

"Iruka-sensei isn't here," Sasuke said lowly, "And—"  
"Takami-sensei said that things could be down here. It could be anything, from crazed shinobi to lions. And, for all we know, she could've followed us down here," Sakura kept going, too scared to remember she didn't want to offend her crush, "Divide and conquer, right? If we separate, it'll be easier for her to pick us off. She said you're the strongest here, with jutsu and skills and smarts so we can't afford to lose you. Naruto's the only one unhurt and able and I'm the only one who can open the pack of medical supplies."

"So we can't split up," Naruto summed up. "I guess. But that means we only have a fifty-fifty chance of getting to the exit in time."

"We've got a strict time limit and…and…It's all or nothing," Sakura said. "Ne, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke looked at his feet, not wanting to agree with a single thing a mindless fangirl had to say. He idly thought to himself about the possibility of Takami having put seals on their backpacks, as if that would delay an answer, as if waiting for a week to be up was going to solve his problems. He looked at Naruto, knowing that he had to take action now and procrastination wasn't going to lead him anywhere, "Naruto, carry Sakura. We're going that way," Sasuke pointed to the cavern behind them, "We can't go up; we don't have enough rope and these walls are made of superfine soil; we can't stick kunai in them and expect them to support our weight. The entrance to the cave was that way and I figure that the path down there slopes up so we can maybe explode enough without dying from a cave-in and get out."

"Sure," Naruto grumbled, not wanting to agree with the stuck-up prick. But they had no choice, or they'd keep arguing until the end of time, or until a week was up. "Whatever you say."

Sasuke gave him a withering glare as Sakura jumped onto Naruto's back and held onto him tightly. Hanging backwards on his chest was his own pack and on Sakura's back was hers. The three Genin continued to follow the bright glow of Sasuke's flashlight until Naruto's eyes began to droop from exhaustion. He began to veer closer and closer to the wall until he brushed it.

He let out a yell, his eyes going wide and adrenaline pumping into his legs and arms, ready to flee or fight. Sakura tumbled to the ground as he flailed his arms and jerked around wildly, shrieking. Sasuke paled when he saw maggots the length of his finger crawling on Naruto and then settling on a large vein and burrowing in. Naruto shrieked even louder when blood ran down his arms and legs and face from the burrowing of the maggots. Sasuke could make out their teeth biting into Naruto's flesh.

Sasuke began to weave signs for a katon jutsu, only for Sakura to grab his hand and stop the seal, "Don't; you'll kill him!"

Sasuke debated what she'd said and his eyes narrowed. Not only was he annoyed that she was opposing him for a second time, but she had a null point. If Sasuke did perform the jutsu, Naruto would die. If he didn't, the maggots would kill him first. It was a lose-lose situation.

Naruto dropped the ground, shaking and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Sasuke cursed and dropped to his knees over Naruto. He gripped the slimy, squishy, and disgustingly warm maggot and threw it towards Sakura, "Stab them!"

The Uchiha turned back to his work and saw the maggots slowly dropping on their own from Naruto's body and convulsing and then dying, lifeless. Sasuke stepped on them angrily, ignoring their guts splattering on his face. He looked at the blonde and shook his shoulders, "Naruto!"

The boy didn't respond. Sasuke's eyes widened and he pressed a finger under his jaw and desperately searched for a pulse. "Come on, come on…don't you fucking die you idiot…"

A few seconds passed and Sasuke sighed in relief, "He's alive."

Later that evening, the cavern opened up into a wide, open space. Sasuke's flashlight wasn't strong enough to illuminate into the darkness. He supposed it must've been around a hundred yards from the ceiling and to any of the walls. He wanted to explore and possibly find food, but with Naruto unconscious and Sakura injured, it wasn't like he had much of a choice.

Sasuke dispersed his clone carrying Naruto, the last of his chakra used up. The Uchiha sat with a series of wire traps around them. He was the spider in the middle of the web, ready to kill.

"What're we going to do?" Sakura asked quietly. "We've got limited water and I don't hear any kind of water source down here. We're all injured now and I doubt maggots, or whatever those were, are the only things down here. Takami-sensei said she 'left' some things down here, right?"

Sasuke nodded wearily, "Fucking sadist, that's what she is."

"Ne, Sasuke-kun," Sakura started. Sasuke looked at her blankly, "When we first met her, on the stairs, you said her name before she introduced herself. Do you know her or something?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and they glinted in the faint glow of the flashlight. Sakura got the feeling she must've hit a nerve and Sasuke responded harshly, "None of your business. Go to sleep; I'll wake you up in a few hours," Sasuke ordered as he took Naruto's watch from his wrist onto his and looked at the clicking hands.

Sakura followed orders and huddled next to Naruto for warmth. Sasuke could almost see his breath in front of him, a white cloud; it felt like zero degrees. It was amazing that ice wasn't forming around them.

* * *

Takami lay motionless on her bed, staring up at the ceiling blankly. She felt a signature appear next to her and turned her head slightly. Her eyes slowly slid over to the corners and she had half a mind to salute weakly, "Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi frowned at her, "Where's your team? It's been two full days since you met them."

Behind him, Kakashi materialized. Takami sat up then, her grey T-shirt with a pale pink cat face in soft, fuzzy down sticking out slightly. She brushed her shirt, feeling the nice, soft down, and a small white pill rolled off her bed and clattered to the ground. Her eyes widened but before she could grab it, Sarutobi already had it in his hand, examining it with a suspicious eye, "What is this?"

"Candy," Takami said, "The last one I had."

"I see," Sarutobi put it in his pocket and examined every lack of twitch and calm facial expression on her face. She was trained to hide her emotions and her black eyes revealed nothing, at least not anymore. "Where are Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke?"

"Training," Takami said. It wasn't even a lie.

"Where? Is a clone with them?" Sarutobi pressed.

"Why are you really here, Hokage-sama? I'm still getting adjusted to the team you refused to allow me to fail," Takami narrowed her eyes. Kakashi stiffened at the last statement, his eye widening imperceptibly. But Takami saw it.

Sarutobi pursed his lips, "Jiraiya's been doing a bit of reconnaissance. He's stumbled upon a dangerous organization: the Akatsuki. He's not entirely sure how many members there are but he's sure that Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui are members. He's requesting for you to help him. I told him that you're busy with your Genin, but he insists."

Takami stood up and walked past her Kage. She grabbed a glass and filled it up with water and drank only a sip. The cup slipped out of her hand and shattered in the sink, "Whoops."

Sarutobi lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry, Takami. I'll tell him you declined."

"You do that," Takami drawled in a foreign accent, one she hadn't been caught with since she came to Konoha. Sarutobi and Kakashi left after a moment, the latter leaving her keys on her table. She sighed, realizing one thing: he'd taken them from her. She slipped on her shoes and walked to the locksmith and changed her locks so that no one would ever come in like that.

* * *

 _Day 2_

* * *

Naruto awoke to Sakura shivering in cold next to him. He pulled out a blanket and draped it on her and looked over at Sasuke, falling in and out of sleep. He blinked when he saw Naruto move and threw him the watch and fell asleep right then and there.

 _4:05. Probably AM._ Naruto cringed. _I'm starting to lose track of AM and PM. Why couldn't this have told us AM and PM? It's already high quality and adding PM and AM couldn't have cost more than 800 ryo._ Naruto grabbed Sasuke's flashlight and flashed it on the watch, examining it.

He saw a name and date etched in, crudely done, by a senbon or kunai. _Hatake Youme. January 1._ Naruto certainly didn't know any Hatake. He had no idea if his own sensei was one or not, but he vaguely remembered from class that the Hatake had been annihilated in the War and that was something that, along with the Yondaime's 1,000 against 1 battle in Iwa, had helped end the War.

"Sakura," Naruto nudged her awake, "What do you remember learning about the Hatake?"

Sakura rubbed her eyes and yawned, "They were a really old clan, even older than the Uchiha and Senju. In the Third War, they were annihilated by some Konoha shinobi, a hero. The Hatake, at the time, were planning to ally with Kiri to take down Konoha. This was a problem, obviously, since Kumo, Iwa, and Suna were already against us and were winning. So, Konoha sent one of its best to kill them all and succeeded, despite the Hatake having primarily lightning jutsu in a snow-covered area, and a few of the other affinities. Why?"

"This," Naruto held the watch to her face. Sakura knitted her brows, "I don't know of any Hatake, besides Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, and his father, the White Fang. There might've been another one, but I forget. None of the shinobi from the War are given more than a paragraph or two in the textbook."

"Shut up," Sasuke hissed, cracking open one eye to glare. "You got to sleep. Let me."

Sakura looked down. "Sorry…"

Naruto flopped back on his back and flicked the flashlight upwards, waiting for a few hours to pass for Sasuke to get his beauty sleep. Sakura brushed Naruto's fuzzy leg from her ankle. She felt cold from his leg and looked at her leg more closely.

Naruto jumped back several feet out of shock when Sakura let out a bloodcurdling scream. " _S-spider!_ "

Naruto flashed the light on the huge black spider, foaming at the mouth with its beady red eyes staring at the blood-filled sack of human ravenously. Naruto grabbed Sasuke and kicked him awake. Sasuke glared at him for a moment, ready to choke him for his sleep, but stopped when he saw the spider, at least twenty feet long and thirty feet tall.

The Uchiha weaved seals and fire exploded from his mouth. Sakura turned paper white when she saw what lay beyond, above them. Sasuke's flames had lit up the cavern, perhaps 500 or 600 feet up, was a huge colony of hundreds of glittering black spiders that were foaming and spinning silk and waiting to feast on the tiny Genin.  
Naruto grabbed Sakura and threw as many of his exploding kunai at the spider and ran, yelling for Sasuke to catch up. Naruto tripped over a dip and Sakura was sent sprawling on the ground.

"Watch out!" Sakura cried.

Naruto turned and saw the spider racing towards him with unbelievable speed. Its drool dripped down onto his head, thick and slimy and disgustingly warm, and he rolled narrowly out of the way. The spider's jaws left a huge crater where Naruto had just been and he raced to Sakura. Her eyes shook with fear and disbelief and he readied himself with a kunai out, glaring at the damned thing.

Sasuke was blown backwards when a few spiders fell onto the ground with thousands of pounds of pressure. An earthquake caused the ground to shake and the spiders began to fall like rain in a heavy downpour. Sakura let out a terrified scream as Naruto caught Sasuke midair, his heels digging into the dirt to stay standing. Sasuke clambered out of his arms and let out more flames, almost burning white hot.

It wasn't enough.

More spiders rained down and it wasn't long until Team 7 was surrounded. Lightning suddenly raced from spider to spider, like a lion pouncing from prey to prey. It sunk its fangs into each huge spider and in the confusion; Naruto grabbed Sakura and Sasuke's hand and dragged them to the tunnel they'd walked down the day before. Just as they cleared it, rocks sealed the spider infested cavern and a single hiss of a spider dying and the terrible stench of burning flesh that cooked everything in an instant was all that remained of them. The three collapsed, panting hard with their heartbeats pounding in their ears and their hearts stuck in their throats and adrenaline making them jittery. Cold sweat rolled down Naruto's face and his facial mirrored that of his teammates: shaken up and terrified.

A bitter laugh escaped the Uzumaki boy and he grinned from ear to ear, "I don't know what you did, Sasuke, but that was incredible. You saved our asses."

"I didn't," Sasuke said. He glanced back at the now-sealed spider cavern, "And I don't know what did. It was some raiton technique, and a powerful one at that."

Naruto shrugged, "We've got to find something to eat soon. Or water."

Sakura pressed her ear to the wall after checking carefully for any maggots. She tapped on the rock, listening for something. Her eyes widened and a grim smile snaked its way onto her face, "Water!"

"What?" Naruto's eyes lit up. He pressed his ear to the wall and he too had the same crazy stupid grin Sakura wore. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "It could be a trap."

"We won't ever know if we don't find out," Naruto took out a kunai and a rectangle of paper and neatly drew out the seal for explosion. He tied it to the kunai and jammed it into the rock. The three ducked as the bomb went off and torrents of water leaked out. Hastily opening their canteens, Team 7 filled them up to the brim. The water soon died down to a trickle, revealing another corridor. After taking a long sip of ice-cold water, they continued in soaked clothes with Sakura on Sasuke's back and Naruto taking the lead.

* * *

Asuma rested his head on a palm, watching Shino, Kiba, and Ino eat their fried soba noodles. Ino was barely eating, as usual, and Kiba was overeating, as if to compensate for her nibbles.

"Asuma-sensei," Kiba swallowed his food, "What ever happened to Team 7? With that Sasuke prick and Naruto and Sakura?"

Asuma frowned, "I don't really know. Their sensei took them to Training Ground 1 three days ago and the three of them just disappeared."

"You don't think their sensei is like, torturing them, do you?" Ino asked, worried, mainly for Sasuke's sake. "Just who is their sensei anyway?"

Asuma scratched his neck uncomfortably, "Well, their sensei's name is Hatake Takami. Nowadays, she keeps to herself and doesn't really have any friends. I'm friendly with her as a fellow Jounin, but there's still a rift. I think I heard once that some doctor diagnosed her with depression."

"Why?" Ino asked. "What does she look like?"

The Sarutobi man shifted in his seat, "In the War, something happened. I don't know what; it's classified. I don't have high enough clearance to know, but it must've been awful. The War hurt everyone in some way or another, but she took it really hard. Later, after the War ended, four years ago, her entire family was killed and she survived by the skin of her teeth, barely alive on the outskirts of Konoha."

The three were stunned into silence. "I-I'm sorry I asked," Ino said.

"It's fine. Just…don't tell anyone I told you, okay?" Asuma said, his eyes looking into each of his students' eyes. They nodded solemnly. "As for what she looks like," Asuma brought out a photo. "This is a photo of a group of us Jounin after the War, over a decade ago. This is me," Asuma pointed to a lankier, more edgy looking Asuma, "This is her younger brother, Kakashi: a Jounin sensei this year for Hinata, Lee, and Shikamaru, and this is Takami," Asuma pointed to the smiling girl with one hand out in a peace sign and the other around the shoulder of another silver-haired teen, Kakashi.

"She's pretty," Ino blurted out.

Asuma put away the photo. "I guess. The silver hair is a little weird, though," he grinned, "Certainly don't tell her I told you that."

"Is she training her team to the bone or something? I haven't seen them in ages," Kiba commented.

"Who knows," Asuma shrugged. "She's not allowed to fail that team; Hokage's orders, and she's probably training them beyond the bone. I won't be surprised if her Genin are stronger than Kakashi's Genin, or you three," Asuma smirked.

"Like we'll let those guys beat us," Kiba grumbled, stuffing his face with more food. Asuma grabbed himself another helping and smiled at his cute Genin, completely unaware of the horror of the Chuunin Exams in a year.

* * *

 _Day 4_

* * *

Naruto stopped and looked back at his teammates, "We've been wandering around the same damn tunnel forever now. I bet we've spent over a day stumbling in the same tunnel," he glared at Sasuke.

"Hey, it isn't my fault you have no sense of direction," Sasuke growled.

"Yeah, it is," Naruto said dryly. He let down Sakura from his back after Sasuke had gotten 'tired' from carrying her. The girl was light, too light, and Naruto just couldn't wrap his head around how the girl could be heavy. She was like a feather for Kami's sake.

Sakura rubbed her face with her hands, feeling tired. Her entire body felt drained of all its energy. She weakly molded chakra, only to find it almost nonexistent.

"Just how is it my fault?" Sasuke demanded, taking Naruto's collar in his hand. "You're the one who thought it was this way! I bet that water has messed with you! If only you'd listened to me and realized it was poisoned with some kind of retardation chemical that you clearly have now, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Sasuke yelled.

"If anyone's retarded, it's you!" Naruto growled back.

"Hey…guys…" Sakura's voice came out raspy.

"Hold on," Sasuke hissed and didn't take his eyes off of Naruto for even a moment, "We just need to find the corridor we came through and go out that way."

"That's right where the spiders were! Do you want to go back to the spiders? Your jutsu couldn't even kill one of them," Naruto's eyes bugged out skeptically.

"The corridor to those things was sealed off! And I didn't see you doing anything more productive in killing those things as my jutsu was! You can't even perform any jutsu," Sasuke argued.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled.

"What?" the two boys hissed.

"I think…I think we're in a genjutsu. That must be why I have almost no chakra and why we keep going in circles," Sakura said.

The two stared at her, not believing it at first. Sasuke let go of Naruto and checked his own chakra. His eyes widened in horror. "Genjutsu." Naruto's pale face confirmed it.

"Kai!" the three of them yelled.

The genjutsu broke to reveal them blindfolded, tied, gagged, and sitting back to back. Distant murmurs could be heard, but it wasn't anything coherent. Sakura listened more closely and realized it was a completely different language. She'd never heard of any language than that of her own, that of the entire world. Somehow, these people around her, around ten or twelve, had a language with no obvious similarities to her language. _Where could they have been to be isolated and develop a new language?_

Naruto yelled out something, not even understandable, and thrashed angrily. There was another bout of rapid talking, and then the blindfolds and gags were ripped off. Sakura stared at the people before here, just barely illuminated by the light coming from a few lanterns. They were dressed in something completely different from regular clothes, or yukata or kimono. The men wore nothing but a cloth wrapped around their waists that stopped at their knees. The women wore something that covered their chests and a similar waist garment. Sakura looked at their clothes a little closer and found that they weren't even fabric, like cotton or wool.

It was fur.

The realization was cut short when Naruto began to shoot his mouth off angrily, demanding to be let go. A man took a pace or two, his height allowing him to reach the boy and possibly choke him rather easily, and glowered down at him. The man's movements blurred and then Naruto was coughing and wheezing with blood running rimming his lips.

"Hey, leave him alone! He's an idiot; I get it, but just hear us out! We're just trying to find the exit," Sasuke argued. Sakura could hear the pleading in his voice.

The group exchanged looks and words before the ropes were cut and Team 7 cautiously and nervously looked at their captors. Naruto was the first to make a run for it, only for him to trip and then be stepped on by another man.

"Let me go!" Naruto yelled.

The women went down a side corridor and dragged Sakura while Sasuke was beaten by the men, thrown around and slammed down and punched and kicked.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried out, tears running down her face. She couldn't struggle against the women; their grip was too strong and she was still injured from being thrown down here by Takami.

Sakura hated to admit it, hated to say it, but desperation choked her up and fear of death became too strong a wave to deny, "Takami-sensei! Help us!"

Her cry fell on deaf ears and the women continued to drag her away, further from her team.


	3. Caverns of Hell II

Takami bowed deeply to the small altar in her apartment. She set out fresh mochi and set down her jade prayer beads and bowed once again, staying in that position for several minutes. After ten minutes had passed, she straightened up, blew out the candles, and closed the door to the altar. With her keys and a few hundred ryo in her pocket, she set out to walk nowhere.

"Hey, Takami-chan!" a friendly hand waved her over, his green suit too bright to look at.

Takami glanced over, crushing a white capsule in her mouth and adjusted her yukata slightly. She glanced back up at the Hokage monument before hearing her name again and then looked at her feet for a little while. She made a few circles in the dirt before a few children, running in the street, were murdered by nothing, blood pooling under their fidgeting bodies and their eyes melting into their deflating heads.

She stumbled back, landing on her behind with horror streaked in her eyes.

Not a moment later, the children who'd slammed right into her apologized and ran off again. She blinked, turning around to stare back at them laughing and saying something like, "Come on, let's play ninja!" and something inside her hurt.

* * *

Sakura nervously bit her lips, already red and scabbing over from biting them earlier. The women had forced her to help them clean the furs and to her surprise, they used needles made of sharpened bone and wire for thread as they patched up some other 'clothes'. The women chattered in their language and it seemed peaceful until something in the air snapped and Sakura couldn't breathe.

There was a feral cry and a terrible chakra made her skin crawl and feel like it was burning off. She looked at the women, who had stopped talking all together and threw down their work and went over to the corridor.

What Sakura saw was something she'd never forget.

Naruto was covered in his own blood, but his wounds were quickly healing, _too_ quickly, and his eyes were a deep red, full of hate and rage. Red chakra swirled around him and he launched himself at the men, his claws sunk into the men's cheeks. He roared and fangs grew into his teeth and he exuded even more pure killer intent and began to go on a killing rampage. Sasuke was unconscious, even after what felt like a day or two to Sakura. She grabbed his body and pulled him away from Naruto, terrified.

She'd seen the stares some of the people gave Naruto, but never understood. She, too, often had given him those stares. She only stopped when she lost her mother and acted like the others in the village: she ignored him entirely. Vaguely, she'd been aware he'd had a crush on her but that ebbed away to a mere familiarity; they were classmates, nothing more and nothing less.

She covered her mouth with her hands, terrified. Every bone, including the broken one, was filled with fear and the urge to flee after feeling the hatred from Naruto. She couldn't understand but she understood that this, this dangerous terrible power he had was what made the village fear him. She couldn't back this up, but she had a gut feeling. Whatever it was, it wasn't Naruto.

But she was starting to doubt that, too.

Sasuke stirred weakly and Sakura began to rummage in her bag and began to put salve on his bruises wounds and wrapped clean gauze around his flaky, sticky, scabby skin. She brought her canteen to his lips as tears of fear ran down her face and the women disappeared from her side, flashing with some jutsu, and Naruto was brought under control. The women talked quickly and in a hushed manner, their eyes worried. Sakura ignored them and focused on her crush.

After capping her canteen, she took a long look at Naruto. He was out of it now, looking drained. She didn't understand a thing (less now) about him, but she understood that he was dangerous and that going near him might just cause a limb to be lopped off or, like the man earlier, to be cut up and bleeding with slices of flesh bleeding heavily.

The women tended to their own men and threw Sakura a piece of dried meat. The girl pulled Sasuke and herself to a corner far from Naruto and fell into a fitful sleep.

A few hours later, perhaps enough to make the sun give way to the moon, she awoke to see Naruto shaking her awake. She let out a scream and scuttled further away from him.

"It's just me," Naruto said.

"Stay away from me! Don't come any closer, you," Sakura's eyes welled up with fearful tears and her stomach tightened and she gripped Sasuke, who had yet to wake up, and heartbeat was the only thing she could hear, "You monster!"

Naruto was taken aback, having heard the name directed at him before, but never understanding. His mother, as lovely and terrifying as she was, always had an excuse and that guilty look she donned whenever he asked her why the village didn't like him. He ever got a straight answer but he supposed it must've been his father, a man who died on his birthday and lacked any sort of photo or name and must've been some kind of deadbeat or drug addict or something to make him take on the blame for some horrible crime his father had committed.

Maybe.

He didn't want to think about the 'or not' possibility. He hadn't done any wrong, nothing to make the village think of him as not worth living and worth only rotting in hell. The pranks were only minor, not something to literally kill him for. Right?

"What're you saying?" Naruto asked, panicked for some reason, "Let's go, while the guys are all asleep. We've got like, a day or something left."

Sakura shook her head, once weakly, and then more and more vigorously until she bared her teeth and lowered her head and yelled, "No! Stay away!"

Naruto frowned, something hurting inside. He looked away and Sakura almost regretted her words when she saw the dejected look in his eyes. Then he scowled and glared at her, "You're the one who insisted we stick together; teamwork, remember? Takami-sensei wanted us all out in a week. You, spouting the textbook and Iruka-sensei's words word for word, and blubbering all about not splitting up for mission success and all that bullshit. Where's all that now?" Naruto demanded, standing with his fists clenched at his sides, "Without me, you have no one to protect you from all those maggots and whatever else could still be lurking around here. Sasuke, the so-called prodigy and top of our class, isn't anything but a coward. Look at him; he's like a vegetable. Takami-sensei was right about you two; you're weak. You can't even stand behind your own words and you can't even continue and stoop down as low as alienating your own teammate. Teams are put together deliberately, not for fun and games. But you must still be stuck in the illusion that there's a second chance and there's forgiveness," Naruto shook his head in anger, "I've been thinking about why Takami-sensei threw us down here. You might say that she did this just to mess with us, but I don't think so anymore. She's trying to tell us something. I think that something is that this is what the shinobi world is like. I've heard that it's all killing and backstabbing and surviving within inches of death and a few strokes of luck, and most importantly, as you pleaded earlier, teamwork."

Sakura stared at him.

"You chose to be a shinobi the moment you put on your hitai-ate. If you want to be a shinobi, you have to act like one! I don't know what I've done to you or the village to hate me and call me a monster but you're stuck with me as Team 7 whether you like it or not. I don't know about you, but I want to get the hell out of here. To get out, I need both of you. Getting out of here, I think, must be Takami-sensei's way of making it seem like we've become real shinobi. We've weathered our own hell together like shinobi do and I refuse to fail now. Now get the fuck up and let's go, together," Naruto held out his hand, his eyes shining in the dim light from her flashlight.

* * *

"T-the exit!" Sakura cried out, tears of relief streaming down her face. She dropped to her knees after having been carried by Naruto, who'd run for Kami knew how long. Her eyes trailed over the black markings over the rock blocking the exit, but not preventing little cracks of sunlight from seeping into. She clawed at it, ignoring the sounds of her former captors growing louder and closer.

"Move," Naruto ordered. Sakura looked up at him in confusion and opened her mouth in protest. Naruto shook his head and stepped forward. He placed a hand on the middle of the seal matrix and placed a slip of paper on it. Kanji decorated the paper and chakra poured out of his hand while the black markings crept onto the paper and outlining the kanji that were fading.

A wind erupted from Naruto's hands and Sakura shielded her face from debris. Sasuke stirred slightly. Naruto's hair whipped around his head wildly and sweat poured down his face and his left hand was frozen in a single seal. His eyes were shut in concentration. A low growl from the ground reverberated in Sakura's chest and the rock finally moved and sunlight poured into the cavern. Sakura grabbed Sasuke's legs while Naruto grabbed him by the underarms and Team 7 sprinted with the last of their chakra to the outside world.

They collapsed on the soft grass in the middle of the forest. Naruto let out a sound that scratched Sakura's ears but she laughed with him anyway.

"Ah, so you three made it," Takami blocked the sun, leaning over them. "How was it?"

Naruto's eyes rolled into the back of his head and Sakura slipped into a slumber complete with loud snores. Takami pushed back any sort of amusement or smile and with two clones, picked them up and carried them back to the village. _We'll see, Hokage-sama. I won't say you're right just yet._


	4. Introductions

"Morning," Takami greeted, rubbing an eye with the heel of her hand.

The three teens remained silent, nervously sitting on the narrow stair steps that they'd first met her at. She sat on the edge of the rail and didn't look over this time.

"Now that you three are worth my time," Takami's eyes jumped from one pair of Genin eyes to the next, lingering on Sasuke just a moment longer, "Because you survived those infamous caverns. As a reward, let's do a little bit of introduction. Likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future. Sakura-san, you can go first."

"I-I'm Haruno Sakura. I like, uh," Sakura flushed, making Takami smirk a little, "I like history. I reread the history textbook we were given and I saw that you're a rather decorated war hero," Sakura looked at her Jounin sensei with hope, hope that she'd be redeemed. "I don't like salty things My hobby is to collect textiles. My dream is," she took a deep breath, "To avenge my mother's death and help my father bring back the name of the Haruno family."

"Naruto-san, you can go," Takami said without missing a beat to disperse the uneasy atmosphere at Sakura's words.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen and I don't like how hard calligraphy is. My hobby is to try different types of cup ramen and my dream is to conquer all of the ramen in the world!" Naruto grinned, "And, to find out who my dad is and what terrible thing he did to leave my mom."

Takami sighed. "Sasuke-kun, you're next."

Sasuke looked at a point far away, "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like anything and I hate sweet things. I have no dream; my ambition is to avenge my clan."

"So you're all in the whole revenge thing, are you?" Takami stood up and crossed her arms, "I'll tell you three this once and once only: give that up. Sakura-san, your honorable mother is already dead. Naruto-san, you have your mother to look after. As for you, Sasuke-san," Takami leaned down and her finger jerked up his chin to look into her matching black eyes, "Please, Sasuke-san," she winced, her eyes shining with tears that she couldn't shed, "Give up on them."

Sasuke glared into her eyes, hate boiling in his eyes. "I lost everything that day! So did you!"

Takami gave him an innocent look, "I have no ties to the Uchiha, besides an old teammate and my brother's eye. Maybe you're confusing me with some other Takami. Really, Sasuke-san, you're a real disappointment of a prodigy. You can't differentiate faces with the same name? What a shame," Takami shook her head, clicking her tongue in disapproval.

"Sensei, why don't you introduce yourself?" Naruto asked.

"Right," Takami leaned against the railing, "I'm Hatake Takami. My brother is that famous Copy Ninja leading the team of Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, and Rock Lee. I like a few things. I don't like a lot of things. My hobby…well. I don't think my dream is all that important."

"That's it?" Sakura muttered, "All we really got was your name…"

"Well, that's all you need, right? Until the Chuunin Exams, I am Takami-sensei. I'm only going to be around for a year, when the Chuunin Exams are, so all you really need is my name. You don't need to know any war stories or my life story. That's not going to be helpful in the midst of a battle. Or at any point," Takami replied simply. "To be a good shinobi, I didn't need to know you three. I could've gone on with my life, mission after mission, day after day, until I died. But, I took on a Genin team and here I am. I might be risking my life and your lives unnecessarily, or this could just be a happy chapter in my life. I don't know. We'll find out over the course of this year."

Takami smiled at her Genin, "Let's go on a mission. It'll be harmless."

* * *

Takami ushered in her Genin where the elderly and tired looking Hokage sat, looking over scrolls of missions. He looked up and smiled at the Genin, "Here for a mission I see. Quite a few teams have already come in for missions today. The missions you might've had in mind are probably taken, but I do have some left," Sarutobi picked up a scroll and read it off.

"Cutting off vines from Hamada-san's yard, cleaning up the river by Training Ground 18, or solving Sakumo-san's rodent issue," Sarutobi said.

Takami glanced at her team and she eye-smiled with both her eyes, "The last one," Takami patted Naruto's head and led her team out. She led the way up a winding road on the outskirts of Konoha and donned a wide-brimmed hat and tied up her hair. She stopped at a small house and rapped the door a few times.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood right behind her. When the door opened, the smell of old people—cabbage, tea, and incessant blubbering—overwhelmed their nostrils. They glanced away as their eyes burned.

"We're the team here to rid you of rodents, Sakumo-san," Takami said.

Sakumo looked barely pleased. "It's under the house. I'll be watching and if any of you break anything, I'll break you."

The three Genin barely took him seriously and Takami said nothing of it. The three crawled underneath the house with a flashlight and disappeared from Takami's view. She leaned against the house, her face still hidden from Sakumo.

The old Hatake man looked at his daughter with contempt, "Why are you here?"

"To help you with your rodent problem. Give my Genin some experience. Earn money. Or something," Takami said, staring at her feet.

"Why didn't you let Kakashi take this mission?" Sakumo didn't bother disguising the venom in his voice and words.

"His team is already a relatively seasoned team. Mine isn't. As their sensei, I'm supposed to make them ready to take the Chuunin Exams and then I'm done and out of anyone's hair," Takami said, her voice growing quieter and quieter.

"I'm not paying you," Sakumo said matter-of-factly. "You're not my daughter. You're nothing," Sakumo spat onto her clothes.

Takami tried to suppress the anger-dipped response and failed, "You understand nothing!" _Understand nothing...huh? That's a lie._

Sakumo laughed slightly, "Me, knowing nothing? That's a stretch. I'm almost fifty and you think I know nothing? I've survived longer than the average shinobi, even if I'm not active duty. You're in your mid-twenties and you're almost at the end of your life. I'm just counting the days, waiting to cash in your savings."

Takami shook with rage, but said nothing.

"Hey, old guy!" Naruto began to crawl out of the ground. "We got rid of all the rats," Naruto dusted off his clothes and held up the net with rats squirming and squeaking in it.

"Good job," Sakumo crossed his arms, "Here's your payment," he handed Naruto a fat stack of money. Sakura and Sasuke received a large sum as well.

"What about Takami?" Sasuke asked.

Sakumo shrugged, "She didn't want any. Ungrateful if you ask me."

A beat of silence passed before Takami bowed lowly and pushed her Genin away from the house. Her stony face didn't go unseen by the Genin.

* * *

Takami put her head down on her arms and closed her eyes as her Genin munched on gyoza. Someone tapped her arm. It was Sasuke, "What, Sasuke-san? I'm not hungry."

"What was with that guy?" Sasuke scowled.

Takami sat up and her eyes trailed Kakashi and his team walking over lazily. She propped her chin with a hand and looked at the Uchiha boy, "That was Hatake Sakumo. He's a relative of mine. We don't get along all that well—"

"For a reason I don't understand," Kakashi ordered gyoza as well, appearing out of nowhere. The Genin sat in one blob and their two Hatake sensei sat off to the side. He gave her a strange look, "I saw him yesterday. He seems to really hate you. What happened?"

"It's nothing," Takami waved it off with her other hand, "He'll get over it. You three can go home after this. Kakashi'll pick up the tab. Meet me on Training Ground 1 tomorrow. We have a lot of work do to, so prepare. Night," Takami stood up with her plate untouched and Kakashi stared after his sister with concern. Then he blinked, "Wait! Lend me some money!"

"So," Naruto grinned, looking at Lee, "It's an all you can eat night then!"

"How youthful!" Lee cried. "Fifteen orders, please!"

* * *

"Sakura-san, you lack stamina, muscle mass, and reflexes," Takami looked from one Genin to the next, "Naruto-san, you don't think through your attacks and go blindly with mild force. Well, as for you, Sasuke-san, you don't lack much of anything, except for absolute trust in your teammates. Don't worry, they lack that too."

Takami leapt off the post she'd been balancing on and two clones appeared next to her in two puffs of smoke, "Starting today, if we're not doing missions, we'll be here, training. If any of you die in the Chuunin Exams I'll be blamed, even with the consent forms."

"You keep talking about this Chuunin Exam. What is it?" Naruto frowned.

"There are three levels in shinobi ranking. The first is Genin. The second is Chuunin. The third is Jounin. Many differences exist between these levels, but a stark one is the missions you'll be assigned. Missions are categorized from least difficult or deadly to most difficult and lethal: D to S. D-Rank and the occasional C-Rank are assigned to Genin. Chuunin take B-Rank or lower. Jounin take A-Rank and lower. S-Rank missions are reserved for exceptional Jounin. The Genin Exam is something you took to graduate. The Chuunin Exam is, as you might guess, an exam to graduate to Chuunin. And the Jounin Exam is, of course, an exam to graduate to Jounin. Each exam gets harder and more dangerous as you approach Jounin. The Chuunin Exam is supposed to test your capabilities as Genin and see possible candidates for Chuunin. You compete against other shinobi from other villages in hopes of becoming a Chuunin," Takami smiled a little, "Fun fact: only about ten to five percent of Genin survive the Exams and even fewer become Chuunin. You have little time to prepare for the Exams, considering they're in a year and you don't know what kind of skills your opponents are bringing to the table. Hell, you don't even know how many there are. Tell me, Sakura-san, what kind of situation does that sound like?"

Sakura licked her lips, "Uh…"

"Naruto-san?" Takami chirped.

Naruto shook his head slowly, his eyes wide with fear of what she'd do.

"Sasuke-san."

Sasuke stared at his feet.

"Oh Kami, you three have a long way to go," Takami said. "It's war. Think about it: you go up against an unknown amount of enemies with skills you know nothing about. But they know more about you than you know about them. You're aiming to survive to win, to claim the title of Chuunin. It's a bloodbath; battle to the death and you've only got your teammates to rely on."

"It sounds impossible," Sakura muttered, "How…"

"Train," Takami said. "Well, you could spy on them beforehand. Intelligence gathering, if you don't know, is its own sector in any shinobi village. We've got a spy network all around the world. Our spy network is upheld mainly by Sandaime's student, Jiraiya of the Sannin."

"The Legendary Sannin?" Sakura gasped. "You mean Hokage-sama taught them? The ones who fought so effectively in the War and brought down Hanzo from Ame?"

Takami nodded, "Nice to know one of you knows Konoha's history. In addition to being a very successful infiltrator and espionage master, Jiraiya-sama taught the Yondaime Hokage, the man who took down the Kyuubi."

"Going back to the Chuunin Exams, my role as your sensei is simply to prepare you for shinobi life and these Exams. You three are an interesting bunch, but I don't mean that in a positive way. But my job and order is to prepare you, so I will. Let's get to it then," Takami dug in her pocket and triumphantly brought out two white cloths. Something else was brought out along with the rapid arm motion and it was a small clear plastic bottle with little white capsules in them.

Naruto reached down to pick it up for her, but she snatched it away.

It was too late. He'd read the label. He stared, shocked, at her and she stared at him, as if just begging him to challenge her and dare to open his mouth. He didn't.

"Naruto-san, Sasuke-san, take this and tie it around your eyes," Takami ordered, her voice cold and commanding. The boys followed hesitantly.

"Sakura-san, you're going to attack me while I attack them. Your job is to protect them. You may use any kind of weapon or attack you like," Takami said. Then she and her clones vanished.

* * *

Sakura's hands shook with a kunai held with both hands and her knees were bent, but shaking. Her eyes darted wildly from side to side, her heart racing as the seconds ticked by and Takami did not appear. She turned around, looking behind at her teammates. They were unharmed. For now, she bleakly thought.

 _There!_

The bushes behind them rustled loudly, as if someone were hiding there. The rustling came to an abrupt halt, making Sakura's heart race even faster. She let out a loud cry and threw the kunai as hard as she could. It zipped through the bushes and embedded itself with a satisfying sound. But to what, she didn't know.

She went over to see what she'd gotten, hopefully a tree, and she was…half right. She saw a log with her kunai in it. Her heart stopped.

Naruto and Sasuke let out a yelp as they were kicked to the ground with Takami standing on them. Her clones dashed out towards the two boys, kunai in hand and coming with the intent to kill. Sakura could feel the raw killing power and dropped to her knees with her face in her hands. _I don't want to die!_ –was all she could think.

"This is what you'd call a hostage situation," Takami said, cutting into Sakura's scared state. "Sakura-san, kill Naruto-san or I kill Sasuke-san!" Takami kicked Naruto over harshly while putting her kunai against Sasuke's neck. He grunted, feeling the cold metal and was totally still.

"S-sensei, I-I can't…" Sakura whispered, her eyes huge and glistening with tears. A moment later, they overflowed and she sobbed on the grass.

"At least, that's what would happen," Takami got off Sasuke and put away her kunai. She took only three strides over to Sakura and grabbed the girl and slammed her against a nearby tree and stared coldly into the girl's terrified eyes, "Stop crying. Will you do nothing and cry while Sasuke-san and Naruto-san are killed because you got scared? No one is going to stop just because a weak girl like you cries. They'll die and then you'll die and the only thing Konoha or any village is going to do is say that the mission was a failure and what a shame. We are tools to our village and we must be stronger than anything to protect Konoha. Your death will not be remembered, but your survival and the survival of your teammates will make you famous. You like history, don't you? Why do you think all those famous people got into your textbook? Because they didn't cry, they didn't let their teammates down, and they certainly didn't let them die in a stupid hostage situation."

Sakura only sobbed harder.

"I'll admit that only the strongest shinobi cry and those who deny their tears are the true weaklings, but those who cry over everything are weak too. Cry now, but I don't ever want to see your tears again. Tomorrow, we'll do the same exact exercise until you can get it right and protect them. Their lives and the sake of the village rests in how well you act. For now, go home, think about what I've said, and get some resolve. You'll be better off for it and so will they," Takami let the girl go and Sakura stood on her two feet and wiped away her tears. Takami swept the girl into a brief hug, "It's okay, Sakura."

Just as quickly as she'd embraced her, Takami let go and flickered to the two boys and yanked off their blindfolds, "You two don't trust Sakura-san right now and I understand why, but you must learn to trust her. She has more potential than you two to grow and since you'll be taking the Chuunin Exams with her at all times, you'll just have to suck it up and trust her. She'll get it, eventually, and then you won't be as bruised as you two are now. Maybe you won't ever get bruised when she's around. Just remember that the Genin in the Exams won't be as strong or merciful as I am so if Sakura-san can hold her own against me, then she can certainly hold her own against your opponents."

Sasuke gave her a skeptical look while Naruto gave Sakura a sympathetic look. Takami slipped the blindfolds in her pocket again and looked at the three of them, "Dismissed. Go home."

* * *

Naruto gripped the doorknob, the only thing keeping him from his mother. He squeezed his eyes shut hung his head. His mother, a wonderful woman, was being dragged through the mud by poverty. It was his father's fault, probably screwing around with other women like a coward.

From a young age, the boy had learned that his mother struggled greatly to make ends meet. He watched as their things, once plentiful and beautiful, went away one by one, including many of her kimono and ornate boxes and other nice things. Often, the power would cut out for long periods of time. Kushina would only have enough food for him on a single plate just for him and encouraged him to eat. Naruto, just a five-year-old, was confused. "What about your food?" Kushina smiled and laughed a little too strangely, "I already ate. Go on, eat, Naruto."

And he did.

Naruto's hands shook in the pure darkness. The lights were out again. Again. If his father were here instead of some tavern getting drunk with other women, his mother wouldn't be suffering. She wouldn't be worrying about money. She wouldn't have had to sell everything she owned. She wouldn't have to starve and lie and cry when she thought Naruto wouldn't hear her.

He opened the door and candles glowed on the table. At the table was his mother with her hands laced in front of her in the manner she often did when she was worrying about something. In front of her was another woman with a clipboard in her hand and a cold look in her eyes, framed by wavy silver hair.

"Welcome home, Naruto," Kushina said offhandedly.

"This is your son?" the woman asked. Kushina nodded.

"Naruto, this is Kanya-san. She's going to help us," Kushina said, not making eye contact with her son. Naruto walked over and gripped the edge of the table.

"With? We don't need help," Naruto barely masked his snarl. He hated when people pitied them or tried to 'help' them. As if _their_ money was going to solve any of _his_ problems.

"Yes, you do," Kanya said. "Your mother was fired three days ago from her job. She is unable to make the payments for this house and therefore unable to provide for herself or you. I was just explaining to your mother that because of this, you would be placed with your godfather until she is fit enough to provide for both of you."

"I'm a ninja! I can make money from missions!" Naruto argued, the anger in his eyes dimming the candle significantly.

"You're a Genin, right?" Kanya asked.

"Yeah, so wh—"

"How has it been since you graduated?" Kanya asked, cutting him off.

Naruto glared, "About a month. You know, lady, Genin are adults in any shinobi village. I don't need to be placed with some old guy; I can provide for both my mother and I just fine."

"Actually," Kanya started, "Only until you have served six months as a Genin to Konoha, or completed one C-Rank mission, or have completed at least seventy D-Rank missions and served for four months, are you considered an adult. As a result, you are still a child, a minor. Therefore you will be placed in the care of your godfather. Your mother will be able to take care of you once she manages to hold a job for at least six months."

Naruto's ears rang, "Just…a C-Rank mission, then?"

Kanya straightened out the papers on her clipboard. "If you can get it done within two weeks, then you may stay with your mother. If not, then you'll live with your godfather."

Naruto was still angry, "I'll do it. You just stay out of it and far away from my mother, or you'll regret it," Naruto's eyes burned holes into her wavy hair and she was completely unfazed. Kanya stood and without another word, walked out of the house. The moment the door clicked shut, Naruto turned to his mother, "I can do it. I won't lose you."

"Naruto, your sensei is Hatake Takami, right?" Kushina asked.

Naruto nodded. Kushina wrung her hands, "I think, before time is up, it's best to meet your godfather before you have to live with him. You know, get friendly with him."

"What does that mean? You believe I can do it, don't you?" Naruto gritted his teeth.

"Takami isn't the kind of person to let you take a C-Rank mission so soon. Meaning, you won't be able to take on a mission. I'm happy that you care so much about us staying together, but you have to understand that there are some things you've got to accept," Kushina said, reaching out to tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear with a sad smile.

Naruto's mouth stood agape. His eyes were wide and his mouth was dry and his ears screamed. He turned on a heel and ran out of his house, shutting his eyes to keep tears from falling.

* * *

The next day's training had turned out to be just as much of a failure as the first day. Sasuke tugged off the blindfold with the edge of his finger and gave Naruto an annoyed look. Naruto angrily stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked up to Sakura, who was looking at her feet in shame as she nursed a few cuts from Takami's kunai.

"N-Naruto," Sakura brightened a little. "I…"

"If you don't pull your act together and act like real shinobi, you'll regret it," Naruto spat. "You're not the only one on this team, you know."

"What?" Sakura's eyes went wide in shock. Then shame overshadowed her features and she hunched slightly, trying to make herself smaller. Her green eyes darted over to Takami, who was chewing something and not even paying attention.

"Naruto-san," Takami drawled, "She's trying. Not everyone has your or Sasuke's innate ability. She'll get the hang of it. In a few week's time I'm sure she'll be able to keep you two from getting bruised and punched and kicked."

Or maybe she was.

"Hai, Takami-sensei!" Sakura said.

Takami looked at Sakura with a strange glint in her eyes. Too glassy, too deep and terrifying. "Get some sleep, Sakura-san. Naruto-san, Sasuke-san, you two stay."

As the sun was setting, Takami looked at her two male students. "Sakura-san will need, honestly, a month or two to really get it. I thought she could adapt quicker, but I was wrong. You two will have to take advantage of this time lost. Once she gets strong enough to protect you two even with your chakra bound, then we'll take on a C-Rank mission outside the village. For now, let's hone your hearing," Takami said.

"In many dangerous situations, your vision may be compromised. Using something to light up your surroundings is dangerous because it's like a huge sign for your enemy to come kill you from the dark without your knowing. On a side note, the sharingan is somewhat useful for seeing enemies but not your surroundings; caverns and corridors and wooded areas don't emit chakra for you to see, Sasuke-san. In addition, being able to work in the darkness allows you to ambush enemies easily. Traps don't often even need to be set in the darkness since your movements will be concealed. If you can work in the darkness and get to your enemy before they even notice you, you're golden," Takami said. "One of you will attack the other with taijutsu while the other is blindfolded. The goal is to be able to predict the other person's movements simply by sound and intuition. After Sakura-san's training exercise to protect you two, you two will do this exercise while I teach Sakura-san taijutsu. After she can fight well enough on her own, she'll join you two. Once all three of your skills are proficient, I'll move on to various ninjutsu and genjutsu. As for time, my hope is that we'll get to ninjutsu with a good two months before the Exams."

"So our going on a C-Rank is entirely dependent on Sakura's ability to protect us in a hypothetical hostage situation?" Sasuke crossed his arms. "Isn't the possibility of her being taken much higher than our being taken?"

"Why do you say that? You two are the more valuable on the team. Sakura-san's father is the wealthiest man in Konoha, second only to the Daimyo in the Land of Fire, but you two have priceless blood running through you. What makes you think that she'll be picked off first?" Takami tilted her head to the left, making her hair catch a few rays of sun and glitter.

Sasuke scowled and looked at a tree behind her, "She's weak."

"At least she knows that, unlike you," Takami said sharply. "You three aren't Uchiha, Uzumaki, or Haruno. You're Team 7. You're one unit and if one of you gets hurt, all of you do. Remember this, Sasuke-san: you're not the only one here. And, your lack of admitting your weakness and subsequent inability to get stronger is what will cause you to fail your team in the Exams. Or kill your ninja career forever. Or both."

Sasuke looked scandalized. He opened his mouth to interject and deny her words and denounce them as a subjective piece of shit, but Takami held up her hand, "Alright, then. Prove me wrong. Prove to me that you can get stronger by not admitting your weakness and poisoning yourself with revenge and risking the lives and safety of Konoha. I won't be around for long so you better make it good and interesting," Takami tossed Naruto the blindfold.

"If we got a C-Rank now, it would push Sasuke to get his act together and admit he's weak and our team would be better off for it," Naruto gripped the blindfold in his hand tightly and glared at it.

Takami said nothing for a moment. She took a good long look at the boy and closed her eyes and shook her head, "Start, you two."

* * *

It was 1:10am. Takami gripped the edge of her sink, barely seeing the outline of blood running down the sides and swirling down into the drain and out into some kind of sewer. She looked up at herself in the mirror and saw a killer; a different era denied its existence. She stared into the black eyes on the other side, ignoring the pain shooting up from her hands and the glass in the sink, gleaming in the moonlight softly meandering in from the window. The young Hatake woman looked at the clear plastic bottle she'd tried to burn to hell, as if that would create more capsules to ingest.

More capsules to forget, that is.

In a flurry, she stormed out of her apartment with only slippers, a grey shirt with a white handprint design, and black pants with small white and pink flowers adorning it. She stalked over the Nara compound, only to see Kushina and Jiraiya talking on a bench in the middle of a park. She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes wide and aware and not even a bit glassy or glazed.

She was awake.

Worst of all, she'd remember this. She'd remember walking out and seeing the two people she most certainly didn't want to see. She'd remember debating vanishing or not. She'd remember the War and everyone else who died.

"Takami-chan," Kushina greeted. "It's awfully late, isn't it? Why're you up? Isn't there team training tomorrow? And, Naruto's not going on a C-Rank anytime soon, right?"

Takami didn't even process what she'd said. Her eyes, glinting a pure, shining silver in the moonlight, were wide and staring into the past she didn't want to see or remember. The War is coming, the War comes, the War came, the War left. Kushina's words went right over Takami's head. The Hatake woman could only hear her comrade's desperate cries out of pain, out of helplessness, out of sorrow.

"Kushina, I think we've talked enough. I'm find with looking after Naruto," Jiraiya said as he narrowed his eyes at Takami. "He's still probably up, being Minato's kid and all. Go home, Kushina. You don't have a lot of time left with him anyway."

Kushina bit her lip and nodded and briskly walked home.

"Long time no see, Takami," Jiraiya greeted cautiously. He walked over to her and snapped his fingers in front of her face.

She blinked and then the Sannin came into focus. She bowed deeply, "Good evening, Jiraiya-sama."

"No need for formalities," Jiraiya waved his hand dismissively. "There's something I need to tell you. Can we talk in private?"

Takami heard something snap inside her. It sounded like the cry of a child and her nod to Jiraiya's request made the child's voice suddenly cut out, as if stopped cleanly by the sharpest sword. She led Jiraiya back to her apartment and her hand shook as she locked the door. He sat in a chair and was looking at the various photos in her photo album.

"Who's this kid?" Jiraiya pointed to a kid on Takami's shoulders. The boy looked about four or five and the two were smiling without any line of worry on their faces. They looked genuinely happy.

"He's…" Takami kept her voice steady and removed, "Just an orphan I met in a rural village a long time ago. I thought that it could lift his spirits, running around with him like that."

"I see," Jiraiya said. "I never pictured you with mother material, being so cold and too formal all the time, but maybe you do have a shred of warmth in that tiny chest of yours."

Takami ignored the comment about her physique and virtual lack of boobs. She gave him a cup of tea and sat with her legs folded underneath her and her hands neatly in her lap. "What did you wish to talk about?"

"I trust Sarutobi-sensei told you about the Akatsuki. Uzumaki Naruto is on your team, right? Uchiha Sasuke too, right?"

"Yes," Takami nodded.

"The Akatsuki is after bijuu. Naruto still doesn't know about the Kyuubi, I think. And Sasuke—"

"Takami-sensei!" there was a loud knock on the door. "Are you awake?"

Takami rose to open the door and saw Sakura standing there. She let the girl in and handed her a cup of tea as her black eyes darted from one thing to another and her stomach began to feel more and more uneasy.

"What's wrong?" Takami asked. "And, how do you know where I live?"

"I-I'd forgotten all about this…but in the caverns, Naruto suddenly changed into this monster. I had a nightmare about it and I thought that what happened was all in my head but I'm getting less and less convinced of that. N-Naruto…he's fine, right?" Sakura asked.

"What exactly happened?" Jiraiya asked.

"This is Jiraiya-sama, one of the Sannin," Takami whispered.

Sakura bowed lightly and said, "His eyes changed color and his nails grew long and sharp and the lines on his face deepened and there was this awful, heavy, malice-filled chakra coming from him. It was like evil itself."

Jiraiya muttered something under his breath and looked at Takami with a suspicious and nervous look.

"Sensei…are you okay? Your hands won't stop shaking," Sakura said.

"I'm fine. Get some sleep; we're doing the same exercise tomorrow," Takami said. The girl left her tea untouched and closed the door quietly. Jiraiya stood up to leave, "Tomorrow, let me watch your training session. I'll tell him about his burden…and his father if Kushina wants me to."

The moment Jiraiya left, Takami vanished to the entrance of the Nara compound. Her silver eyes glinted with clarity, a release from the capsules she'd been ingesting, and her hand gripped the other hand tightly.


	5. Parents

Nara Shikaku was…less than happy. He hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and the Hokage was giving him his critical face, something that usually meant that he had a problem to work out in his head and thinking _this_ early in the morning was damn troublesome. He hadn't even had time to brush back the stray strands of hair before rushing to Sarutobi.

"One of your clan members reported that a hooded figure broke into your medicinal wing and stole several bottles of analgesics," Sarutobi said with his hands behind his back and looked at the Nara man out of the corner of his eye. "Did you see the culprit? There were no witnesses, or so I hear."

Shikaku sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, I saw it. It was Uchiha Shisui. He broke in like a wild animal and opened only a single drawer, like he knew where what he wanted was, and left without killing or even landing a single blow on anyone."

"None of the Barrier Corps reported anyone coming or leaving the village last night," Sarutobi sighed. "Then again, he and Itachi were ANBU; they knew the passcode to get in and out without detection. Gather the Jounin and tell them that Uchiha Shisui might still be lurking around the village and that if they do see him, they are not to apprehend him; they are to flee."

Within thirty minutes, Sarutobi and Shikaku stood in front of the village's Jounin. In front stood the small group of Elite Jounin. Kakashi elbowed his sister to keep her awake and looked up as Shikaku coughed loudly, silencing the room full of murmuring Jounin.

All eyes darted up to look at the Nara man. Shikaku surveyed them for a moment before he began, "About three hours ago, Uchiha Shisui broke into the Nara compound and stole highly addictive analgesics from the medicinal wing of the compound. He did not engage anyone, nor were there any witnesses except for myself, but that does not mean that he won't engage or kill you if you see him. As a result, you are to alert the nearest ANBU team if you see him. Elite Jounin can fight back in self-defense, but it is still not wise to engage him. Under no circumstances are you to look into his eyes; you'll be caught under his lethal genjutsu."

The Jounin swayed with unease. Worry etched itself on their faces and Takami was the only one motionless with her eyes glazed over. She'd heard him, but she didn't care for his words. If Shisui was going to kill, then he was going to kill. Simple. Kakashi stood as stony as his sister but he imperceptibly slouched even further.

A scream broke out in the crowd, followed by three more. They collapsed on the ground with foam gushing out of their mouths and blood coming out of their ears and nose. Takami turned to look at the Jounin who died almost instantly. Surrounding Jounin began to panic and ran for the door. An ominous figure clad in black with a tanto strapped to his back and eyes that bore a deep red appeared with a sinister shadow. A grin zigzagged across his mouth and a laugh escaped the depths of his corrupt soul.

"I-it's Uchiha Shisui!" a Jounin cried out in terror. A moment later, he was dead on the ground. The Jounin collectively ran towards the Hokage, who stood in shock. For Shisui to come out in the open like this was…very unlike him. Shikaku glared at the man cackling manically.

Kakashi was frozen in place. Takami stepped in front of her brother with her hands stuffed deeply in her pockets. "It's been a long time, Shisui," Takami allowed lightning to cackle silently around her, "And if you don't want to die right now, you'll leave, _now_."

Shisui chuckled, "Ah, all we're missing is the original White Fang. The Silent Fang is protecting the second White Fang from the Uchiha master of Teleportation. I just came by to tell you and I'm not quite finished," he let out a grin. "While I don't fear your threat despite your rank being right under the Hokage or how you murdered maybe ten times more innocent people than I did during the War and the Uchiha Massacre combined, I'll leave you in peace, for a little while longer. Enjoy this time while you can, Takami-chan."

In the blink of an eye, Shisui was gone. Takami's lightning receded and she dropped to her hands and knees. Black and blue spots danced in her vision as if looking through a dusty black veil and her ears rung. She clutched the bottle in her pocket and dropped to the floor after her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

* * *

It was 6am.  
Something about the way Sakumo had treated Takami had unsettled Sakura. Sakura knew her teacher was slowly growing impatient—who wouldn't?—and annoyed at her lack of skills, but that was the first person to actually tell her she wasn't just a civilian girl swimming in Daddy's money. In other words, that she had flaws. Serious ones instead of the ones like bags under her eyes or sometimes frizzy hair. Serious ones that could get not only herself killed out in the field, but her teammates.

Dying because she was stupid was something she could take with a spoonful of shame. Dying because she was stupid and dragging her teammates along with her? Now that was something she refused to allow happen.

Sakura smiled to herself a little. Sakura's mother had died when she had been a young girl, barely into the Academy. But Sakura was still old enough to remember her mother's smiling face and the strict regimen she subjected Sakura to: reading and reading and reading. _If anything, Sakura, you must be knowledgeable. It may be jutsu that delivers the final blow, but it will be knowledge that will guide you and your teammates to victory._ In between books and tests on Konoha and various other international topics, the girl would practice arithmetic and handwriting. They'd lived in a huge mansion with maids everywhere and everything just breathtaking; from the china in the cabinet to the beautiful kimono she'd be able to wear every day.

However, one day, late at night after coming back from the library, the young Haruno girl found her mother desperately stitching up wounds on two people, a young woman and a young boy, even younger than herself. The woman was bleeding out heavily with a bundle of cloth in her arms. Her eyes shone with endless amounts of a swirl of emotions. Tears didn't flow out of the woman like they did out of the boy, whose breaths became more and more shallow. The woman, despite causing her huge gash on her side to open up again and her broken leg to cause pain to shoot up as if it were torn off, turned on her side and began to cry without a single sound. She stroked the boy's curly hair that was black but had highlights of silver, and held his small hand as the boy died in her arms. Sakura's mother tried her hardest to keep the boy alive, but it was no use. Sakura was about to walk over to ask her mother what had happened, but stayed behind the corner of the building that separated her from her mother, who knelt by as a stream. A man, covered in blood, appeared. His black hair was curly, like the boy's, except jet black. The man grabbed Sakura's mother's neck and after allowing a single word to escape her throat, _Sakura,_ squeezed until her head popped off and landed in the stream with a loud splash. Blood sprayed in every direction and a drop hit Sakura's cheek.

The man showed no remorse after killing her mother, the only parent around to hug her and tell her that her nightmares weren't real and 'It's okay, Sakura.' And promise that it truly was okay. The thing Sakura could remember without thinking too hard about the painful memory of her mother's murder was the crest on the man's back. It was the same crest that Sasuke wore proudly on his back. Sakura looked at her feet as she walked up the path. The other thing she could remember was the woman's gash. The woman had a black seal on her side that looked vaguely like a fuuma shuriken. The man looked at the woman, whose tears hadn't dried up and rolled down her cheek into her hair, almost completely red with blood from a gash on her head. A low murmur escaped the woman before the man placed hand on the boy's cheek and he stabbed the bundle of cloth with his sword right in front of her.

Blood seeped out, along with an infantile cry.

The woman stopped. Her eyes seemed to lose all life and her chest didn't rise. The woman only passed out when the man beat her until she fell into a void between unconsciousness and death.

After her mother's death, Sakura's father had fallen from a well-respected merchant to a drunk who gambled and screwed around with too many women at all of the taverns and red light districts within Konoha and outside of even the Land of Fire. Within a year of her mother's passing, the huge mansion they'd owned had been sold for a fortune. That fortune was spent to sustain her father's drinking and gambling addiction. Sakura was put with an uncle who was rarely home; he worked at the prison a few miles away from Konoha. A year before graduating from the Academy, she'd been given an apartment that was furnished with so many new and beautiful things that just screamed expensive by her father. She still lived there, in the apartment that took up an entire floor that was the envy of nearly everyone in Konoha. Still swimming in Daddy's money. Now, Sakura rarely sees her father except when passing in a crowd after he comes back with a slew of merchants. He'd made his fortune with a very successful trading business, mainly dealing with precious metals and stones and other fine products from all over the world.

Sakura knocked on Sakumo's door. Takami reminded her of her own mother, not giving up on her and hugging her and telling her exactly what her mother had told her as a young girl. Her mother had once told her daughter all of her flaws and then told her how to fix them. It was the same thing Takami had done. No, Sakura thought. Her late mother's spirit must live on in Takami. And for that, Sakura felt the urge to protect Takami, especially when she refused to fight back against old geezers who didn't know their place.

"What do you want?" Sakumo frowned at the girl. "You're that girl from earlier…"

Sakura gathered up all her anger towards her mother's murder and her father's neglect, "You've no right to talk to Takami-sensei like the way you did! You don't know a thing about her and yet you hate her for no reason and go as far as to not even pay her! What's wrong with you?"

Sakumo's frown vanished to the same humored glint that Takami had when she threw them in the caverns. Sakura swallowed hard. "I don't know her, huh? You know, she's said that to me many times. I wonder what you know about her, then. Come inside, kid."

Sakura glared but obeyed. She stood in the hallway next to a small table with numerous photos framed neatly. Out of sheer curiosity, Sakura looked at them and saw a younger Sakumo smiling with a baby in one arm and holding up a toddler in the other. The toddler smiled with a few teeth and wore a summery dress. Next to him was a woman with matching silver hair and black eyes and a few other children surrounded them, ranging in age from maybe ten to five. It was a large, but happy, family. Another photo, a little more recent, showed Sakumo standing with at an Academy graduation ceremony with a girl who smiled widely and her silver hair glinted in the sun. Another one showed the same scene but with a boy with one eye covered. "That was my daughter and son," Sakumo said. "It was before the War."

Sakura still fumed, "Are you going to apologize to Takami-sensei or not?"

"Tell me, what is my despicable daughter to you?" Sakumo raised a brow.

"Definitely not who you think she is," Sakura glared, "She's got flaws and she always is eating some weird white capsule thing but she's trying to make her team strong so they don't die in the Chuunin Exams. She's kind underneath her distant and cold exterior and she's not some kind of monster that you think she is."

"What do they teach in the Academy about the War?" Sakumo asked.

"What… Why do you want to know that?" Sakura furrowed her brows.

"Because Takami helped end the War, along with the Copy Ninja and the Yellow Flash," Sakumo said. "Surely you know that. But do you know how? Wars aren't won with words; they're won with killing. They're won with mass killings until only one person is left. Surely you've realized that."

"I have," Sakura said. "But Takami-sensei never…"

"Takami will be turning twenty-eight in a week. The War ended twelve years ago, so that made her sixteen when the War ended. The War began four years prior, so she was your age when she was sent on the battlefield. Hatake Takami might seem like a person who'd lived in Konoha all her life with a perfect accent and values like 'I live for Konoha, bleed for Konoha, and die for Konoha' and bears the title of Elite Jounin, but she wasn't born here. She was born into the Hatake clan in the Land of Snow. The Hatake clan isn't any ordinary clan. We've been around for longer than the Uchiha have. As a result, we speak a completely different language and have a very different culture. She grew up there until Konoha saw that its falling birth rate was a problem and demanded that any children living outside of Konoha with parents who were shinobi and/or citizens of Konoha were to be brought here and taught in the ways of the shinobi. Takami had most of her childhood in Konoha and often traveled back to her home to visit family and often served Konoha with its diplomatic missions to Kumo, Uzushio, Kiri. When the War broke out, she was sent all over the world, leaving behind a river of blood behind her as she cut down hundreds of thousands, following Konoha's orders to the very letter, to the very last man, woman, and child. Towards the end of the War, she was sent to Kiri. To the Land of Snow," Sakumo sighed.

"The Land of Snow turned red that day. Everyone, all of her entire clan, the one she'd been raised by and born into and had ties to, were killed by her. Konoha's orders weren't to kill them. But she went and not only put down Kiri's army, but her own clan. She killed over a thousand Hatake within one night, six times more than those two Uchiha men did to their clan. She even killed her own siblings. Tell me, girl, is that a shinobi that can be trusted? Is that a shinobi that should be allowed to teach children and take them, unsupervised, on missions? Or even, train them?"

Sakura turned paper white, "Why…why did you tell me that? That's a lie! Takami-sensei might be rough around the edges, but she's not a murderer!"

"I told you this to protect you. From her. Would you like Uchiha Itachi as your sensei?" Sakumo asked.

"No," Sakura said, her voice growing weaker and weaker.

"Then you shouldn't want Takami as your sensei. It's the same thing. She's even worse! She killed so many more I bet than Itachi did in his whole career. And yet you trust her! I don't understand why you blindly trust Takami, but it's time to let go. Get as far away from her as possible. Or you'll get killed. I don't want some innocent girl like you to be killed by a murderous, unstable shinobi like that," Sakumo said. "Damn Takami never even apologized to me after killing my clan or begged for forgiveness."

* * *

Kakashi flipped through the various photo albums his sister kept in her bookshelf as she slept on her bed with a blanket carefully tucked around her. Even in sleep, she couldn't seem to relax. Anguish carved into her features bubbled up as she turned over in her sleep and curled up and huddled in the corner of her bed. Her shoulders shook and the man reached over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay," Takami said as she looked over her shoulder at her brother. "But thank you."

"You really okay? After Shisui appeared, you just lost it. It felt like you were slipping back into the mindset you had during the War and you were really dead set on killing him," Kakashi noted as she sat up and crossed her legs and rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry," Takami said. "I just…I didn't want him to kill anyone else or hurt Konoha," then her eyes narrowed, "What're you looking at?"

"Pictures. I didn't think you were good at arts and crafts, but you put this together pretty well," Kakashi glided a thumb over the carefully placed photos and neat captions. Then he stopped at the photo of Takami wearing a kimono and sitting on a chair with a man whose face had been ripped out beside a young boy holding a baby behind her.

"Give that back," Takami ordered as she lunged and grabbed it from him.

Kakashi didn't fight her. He stood up and tossed her pair of keys to her, "If you're still feeling unwell, I can train your team today. My team is taking a day off."

"How unusual, you're being nice," Takami said, too tired to bring herself to a smirk, "I'll take that offer some other day."  
Kakashi nodded and walked out. Takami ran a brush through her hair and slipped on her shoes and Jounin vest and stepped out into the cool morning mist.

* * *

 _There's something we have to tell you._

The look on his mother's face should've given it away. He should've realized it, in hindsight. It had been painfully obvious. Yet, for all he was worth, he couldn't figure it out.

"Your father wasn't some drunk," Kushina said. "I know you think very poorly of him, but that isn't the case at all. He's the one who saved Konoha from the Kyuubi that was sealed inside of me. His name was Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage," Kushina said. Then a wry smile weaved its way onto her tired and worn face, "You look so much like him. He'd be proud of you, if he were here."

"Y-yondaime…Hokage?" Naruto's eyes were wide for a moment, "Then why are we poor?! You said the Uzumaki was a strong clan with its fuuinjutsu and how you had such a large dowry and that my dad was the Hokage! He must've been rich! How is it that we're poor?!" the Uzumaki boy slammed a fist on the table

"After the Kyuubi attacked, the village was in ruins. Millions of ryo were needed to rebuild the village and because the Hokage's money, made up of taxes and levies, can be accessed in the time of a crisis, the village used up all of it to rebuild. My account and his account had been shared by us, so all the money taken from his account had been taken from me as well," Kushina smiled bitterly, "I should've really had my own account. And after the Kyuubi attack, the business market has been relatively unstable and weak and because you're still a minor, I can't come out of Jounin retirement to take up missions just yet."

"He's dead then?" Naruto asked quietly. "He's not getting drunk and screwing around with other women?"

"Yes, he's dead," Kushina said. "Minato wasn't the kind of man to be unfaithful, Naruto. I wish he were here, to see you, though."

"I wish he were here to make sure you didn't suffer," Naruto glared angrily at the photo of him in Kushina's hands.

Jiraiya smiled at the picture, "Handsome guy, he was."

"Wait…" Naruto mumbled, "The Kyuubi…was sealed inside of you?"

"Yes. The Uzumaki clan was known for its longevity and powerful chakra as the cousin clan to the Uchiha and Senju. I had particularly powerful chakra and I was chosen to be its jinchuuriki, or container, and successor to the previous jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Mito, the Shodaime Hokage's wife. On the night you were born, a masked man extracted the Kyuubi from me and set it on a rampage on the village. Minato managed to seal it away, but at the cost of his own life," Kushina bit her lip.

"It's still in you, then?" Naruto asked.

"No," Kushina said. Jiraiya tensed. _The kid doesn't seem to be connecting the dots at all…_ She grasped Naruto's shoulders, "Your father loved you very much, Naruto. Even though he isn't here to say it, you should know that he would give up everything for you. The last thing he said before he died was that he loved you, Naruto. Do you understand?"

Naruto stared into his mother's eyes, overflowing with tears. "Kaa-chan…what're you…"

"The Kyuubi was sealed into you," Jiraiya said as Kushina hung her head and her shoulders shook.

"What?" Naruto's voice was barely audible. "You…you're joking, right? There's no way the Kyuubi, that monster that destroyed the village, is inside _me_. No way that my own dad…the Hokage…sealed it inside of me! That isn't my father!"

As the seconds ticked by, Naruto grew more and more hysterical and panicked. He stood up shakily with sweaty palms and the world began to tip sideways. Somewhere far away, someone said 'calm down' but each breath was coming in faster than the last one could come out and Jiraiya narrowly caught the boy's head from hitting the ground.

"I'm so sorry…Naruto," Kushina sobbed as she held her son's hand. "Forgive me."

* * *

"He'll be fine, he only fainted, Kushina," Rin said as she scribbled down something on a clipboard.

"But shouldn't we keep him for another day? Just to make sure," Kushina said, her voice dripping with worry.

Rin smiled as a sweat drop rolled down the side of her face, "If you insist, Kushina. But I'm sure Naruto-kun is—"  
"I'm fine!" Naruto argued, trying to rip off the hospital band from his wrist.

"It's a special metal alloy with a seal laced into it," Rin supplied, "You can't break it. Or take it off without any staff's help," a smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Please, Rin," Kushina said. "He's had a tough day today and he comes home with so many bruises from training and I don't want him to get permanent damage."  
"Fine," Rin sighed in defeat. "You know, it's funny, Naruto-kun's chakra coils are a little burned," she looked at the boy desperately fighting the wristband, "You haven't been doing any exercises with chakra, have you?"

"No," Naruto said as he focused still on trying to rip the wristband apart.

Rin frowned to herself and scribbled down something else, "Alright, Kushina, Jiraiya-sama, you two can go. I'll make sure Naruto-kun will be in good hands."

* * *

"I'd like to see ten more laps around the Training Ground," Takami said. "And if you stop for even a moment, you'll have to do a hundred sit-ups. Start."

Sasuke and Sakura had barely caught their breath from the last exercise, which had been a hundred push-ups. Their arms ached and after the third lap, Sakura fell to her knees, and her vision blacked out every so often. Her teeth hurt and she could barely do anything more than listen to the overwhelming sound of her heartbeat rushing in her ears.

"Sakura-san," Takami sang. She walked over to the girl and crossed her arms. Killer intent oozed out of the Jounin and Sakura felt her blood chill instantly. "Get up. You'd be dead by now."

Sakura stood up shakily and took a few more steps before collapsing. Sasuke lapped his teammate and gave her a look full of pity. Takami jerked her head forward, to indicate him not to stop.

"Sakura-san, is this all you can do?" Takami queried. The girl nodded weakly, "You're even more pathetic than I thought. Even your dead mother could do better than you."

Sakura glared at her, "I'm sorry I stood up for you…you're nothing but a bitch."

Takami gave her a funny look before hauling her up, "Naruto-san and Sasuke-san will die with you around. Now start running again, or you'll have to do twice the amount of sit-ups."

The girl swallowed her hate and with an angry look in her eyes, she began to run and fell into pace with Sasuke. Takami crushed a capsule in her mouth as the two collapsed after finishing the tenth lap. Sakura looked at Takami, as if asking for forgiveness, and showed her none. "Go on."

The girl began the agonizing consequences of her failure earlier while Takami left a clone with the girl and took Sasuke a ways away.

"Naruto-san isn't here, so the first exercise with Sakura-san protecting you can't be done. In addition, Sakura-san seems not to have been paying attention in class when there was an emphasis on 'training'. You seem to have been training, though. Ninjutsu and taijutsu. Without Naruto-san, the hearing exercise isn't something I'd like to do. Let's turn the tables, shall we?" Takami covered her eyes with a blindfold. "The problem with fighting in the dark is that you can't see your opponents either. I can't see you, nor do I know what attack you're thinking of carrying out. But, I can still fight. Go on, come at me."

Sasuke pulled out a kunai and threw it at her with as much force as he could. Takami sidestepped and nabbed the kunai out of the air. She allowed chakra to flow through it and it was hurled back at him even faster. He narrowly dodged it and saw how the ground cracked underneath the impact. "What was that?"

Right as the last syllable left his lips, the boy was slammed into the ground. Takami pulled off the blindfold, "Don't give away your position like that. First you threw it, telling me you were in front of me, and then you spoke, telling me that you were within my range of taijutsu."

Sasuke wheezed as he dusted off his clothes after Takami held out a hand to help him up. "What did you do to the kunai?"

"I allowed chakra to flow into it. My chakra is naturally at a raiton predisposition, so the ground cracked. I'll teach you that after you three pass the protection and hearing exercises," Takami said.

Takami put the blindfold over her eyes again and motioned for the Uchiha boy to charge at her again. As the sun was disappearing, the boy dropped to one knee with sweat rolling down his face. Takami had yet to break into a sweat and hung from a tree branch with one hand. The other hand held a kunai and she smiled eerily at him. She suddenly jumped down towards him and he barely dodged her kunai and stepped back as silently as he could.

He stepped on a twig. It snapped softly, but to him it was an explosion, especially when Takami's kunai exploded and sent him flying. He caught a branch and swung down, only to be sucker punched into the ground. Takami caught his shirt before he made a crater face-first on the ground, only to rip the Uchiha crest right off. She pulled off her blindfold and stared the cloth in her hand. Her eyes glinted clearly in the faint moonlight, horror filling them. She dropped it on the ground and took a step back.  
"Takami-sensei?" Sasuke asked.

She wasn't there. She wasn't here, in the mindset of 'today'. She was in another era, in another Takami's mind. Sasuke ignored the chill from his exposed back and grabbed her arm roughly, "Takami-sensei."

"S-sasuke," Takami said. She blinked and the glossy black eyes came back, "Sasuke-san. Sorry. I just…I was surprised by how thick your shirt was. And how maybe I could ask Haruno-san about how thick textiles are made."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "I doubt that."

Takami looked at the moon and a tree in her vision blurred, as if someone in it vanished. She pursed her lips and debated whether or not to tell him. It was a gamble; he'd risk death either way. Because he was a stupid kid, a stupid kid who had the bravery to act upon his emotions. "You know, there was a sighting," Takami started as regret began to choke her up, "A sighting of Uchiha Shisui. Be careful. Don't go after him. I'll leave a clone to watch the Uchiha compound."

Sasuke's eyes flashed with hate and anger. His lips curled up in a more easily seen manifestation of anger and memories of the Uchiha Massacre flooded back to him in a terrible flood. Then he calmed himself somewhat, "Shouldn't you be the more careful one?"

"Why? I'm a Jounin. I'll be fine, Sasuke-san. No need for you to worry," Takami smiled emptily at him, "I'll ask a few ANBU to watch over you as well. Good night, Sasuke-san. You're dismissed."

* * *

Shisui took out his sword from a silver-haired woman and saw Takami standing in the shadows wearing all black. He wiped blood from his face and held out a hand, showing off the gold band still around his finger, "She was planning to kill you."

"Get the fuck out of this village," Takami hissed. "If I see you here again, I promise to rip out those eyes and shove them down your throat and stab you a thousand times and then have your body fry and burn."

Shisui gave her a kind smile, weary and tired but still alive and content, "Yeah. Stay well, Takami. And, stop taking those pills. I can't see the beautiful Takami I knew," Shisui flickered and reappeared right in front of her, a full four inches taller than her. He tucked back a few strands of hair behind her ear and felt something warm in his chest of twenty-eight years as her face flushed with color and she raised a hand to punch him and stab him and throw him to the doorstep of the Shinigami. He put a gentle finger under her chin and leaned forward. His lips locked with hers and she found that she couldn't get away; he'd pressed her up against a wall. She focused and let out a large amount of raiton and katon chakra from her chakra points at him and he was sent flying like a skipping stone on the ground. She was pushed to the ground from her own force, the momentum and potential energy turning into kinetic and making a nasty bruise on her behind.

"Get away from me!" Takami screamed, "I hate you! Get away from Konoha! Get out of the Land of Fire! Just die!" Takami began to weave signs to burn his flesh from the inside out, "You took away your own family and you think you deserve to come back to the village where they rest?! Stay away from them! You'll haunt this village with their unrested souls and then end up killing everyone here! Get the fuck out!"

Shisui flickered away without giving her a second glance. She dropped to her knees and tears just came and came like a dam inside her had been broken. She curled up and awoke to an ANBU shaking her shoulder frantically, "Takami-senpai! Did you see Uchiha Shisui?"

Takami shook her head meekly. "No." _And I don't ever want to see him._

* * *

 _Again?_

Takami gripped her cup of tea that was simply warmed sake and opened her apartment door. She'd been prompted to get up from a knock on her door. It wasn't a knock from the landlord or from her students; they knocked a few times, but it was like a bang. It was someone with something important to say. Or, as she liked to think, someone with something to tell her that would simply upset her.

"Yes?" Takami said after opening the door a crack to reveal only an eye that looked up and saw Nara Shikaku. "Shikaku-dono. It's awfully late."

Shikaku forced her door open and walked in. He took a seat in a chair and looked at her with a critical eye as she locked the door with fluid motions. She handed him a cup of tea and put a mint leaf in it. He took a sip and sputtered. He spat it out on the ground and glared at the Jounin who began to wipe up the mess with a clean hand towel. He grabbed her silver hair and hauled her up until she was looking straight into his angry eyes.

"I don't understand," Shikaku said lowly.

"Understand?" Takami whispered.

"Why you want to plague Konoha with your problems," Shikaku said. "First you stole those drugs from my clan, and then you got all of the Jounin and ANBU on edge or dead."

Takami put down her alcohol and gave him a puzzled look, "It was Uchiha Shisui who stole the drugs and it was certainly him who killed those Jounin. You said it yourself and I'd be rather surprised if you lied in front of fellow Jounin and the Hokage, no less," Takami said calmly. Then she gave him a small smile, "Please don't blame me for things I have nothing to do with. If you'd like, I could help reinforce security—"

"And let him in again, right?" Shikaku asked as if he'd just placed a king into a death trap. Checkmate. "You and Shisui go way back, don't you?"

Takami remained silent, as if just daring him to say it. Shikaku almost chuckled, "I may not understand what you must feel, the betrayal or the pain of having a child murdered right in front of you, but I do understand the bond of a ring."

She saw the room in a sea of angry red, "What're you getting at? What's the point in patronizing me?"

"I'm saying that even though you _seem_ to hate Uchiha Shisui, you won't kill him. You might go as far as to even aid him," Shikaku said with the feeling of checkmate making his hands tingle.

"You're the Jounin Commander," Takami started, "Has Jiraiya-sama told you anything regarding him?"

"No," Shikaku said.

"Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi are part of an organization called the Akatsuki that is hunting down bijuu. It doesn't matter what petty bond Shisui and I once had. My students' safety and my village's safety are my top priority," Takami's fists clenched at her sides. "And if you dare imply again that my loyalty will waver, you must not be worthy to hold the title of a Konoha ninja."

"Let's hope so," Shikaku said. "After all, you're not a Konoha-born citizen; you're a naturalized citizen."  
"I killed my clan!" Takami cried, "And you dare think that my loyalty isn't absolute?! I was trusted with Team 7 for a reason. Uzumaki Naruto, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi and a vital asset to the village and its strength and for the prevention of war, Uchiha Sasuke, the last Uchiha with our most prized kekkei genkai, and Haruno Sakura, daughter of the village's top revenue-bringer merchant, a man who always keeps Konoha's economy afloat. I admit I do have problems, but so does every Jounin. I will not betray this village. I can't; doing so will hurt my students and the village's wellbeing."

Shikaku looked up at her with scrutiny. Takami bowed to a 90-degree angle, "Please forgive me for my tone."

"You're a fine shinobi," Shikaku stood, "But you're two-faced. I can feel war brewing in the distance, Takami. Get rid of that cowardly side and then I'll trust you."

"Yes, Shikaku-dono," Takami said.

"And," Shikaku unlocked the door and put one foot out. He turned to look at her, "I covered for you today. I know you stole the drugs. I won't ask why, nor will I ask for them back. I'll take it out of your paycheck. I'll keep this a secret between you and I. Good night, Takami."

Takami gripped the edge of her sink and looked at the broken glass. _I didn't steal the drugs. But he wants to blame me!_ She saw a figure squatting just outside her door flicker away with the sound of a clink or rattle, maybe from a bottle following just a split second after. She hung her head as white-hot tears escaped her shut eyes and dug her nails into the countertop until they bled. She fell to her knees as she gripped a white capsule and swallowed it without a second thought. _I'm sorry, Shikaku-dono._


End file.
